This isnt even a challenge issue. Its just straight ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. Upgrade shields? Well have fun fighting nothing but missiles and double shields asap. Get mind control or crew teleporter? Your next 5 combats will be auto-ships. Spend all your scrap to buy a decent crew? Doesnt matter, you will still miss 4 heavy laser shots in a row....

I have had something unexpected happen in a battle vs. a Mantis Fighter. It is a Sector 3 battle. I am using Crystal A, and did not previously have a chance to train Weapon skill in a training mission. When I realized the weapons of the Mantis Fighter could not hurt me (just a Mini-Beam and Heavy Laser), and that its two shield layers could block the Heavy Crystal I, I saw that I could potentially use the battle to train Weapons. The one problem with letting a training mission run unsupervised is that ...

...so, let's just attack them all and kill them, slaves included. Teach those slavers a lesson! FTL logic. LOL.

I just won my first ever run with no background knowledge.

Recently I decided to follow a kind of "trend" from the Holo and started playing without hacking. It feels like the game has become much more interesting and varied, honestly. For example, drones have become much more useful, because now you don't need to save drone parts and the system slot, and you can regularly use a defense drone, a hull repair drone, or a setup of two combat 1 drones for gunships even without drone recovery arm. Moreover, there is more scrap in the first sectors for other improvements...